MindJack will drive you out of your wits – game review

Square Enix bring you what is bound to be one of the most original and inventive third person shooters of the year – but does that mean it’s any good?

Mindjack (360) – at least the robots look good

We do understand why Japanese publishers feel the need to keep employing Western developers to make their games for them. Our main complaint is that they always choose such second and third rate talent, thus immediately dooming any cross-cultural co-operation before it’s begun. But the alternative, of letting Japanese developers try to mimic Western style games, is even worse.Although now subsumed into parent company AQ Interactive, developer feelplus are not an untalented bunch. Lost Odyssey certainly had its fans and they also helped out with games like Infinity Undiscovery and Star Ocean: The Last Hope. Their forte is clearly very traditional Japanese style role-players then, not third person shooters.We doubt feeplus has even heard of 8-bit Britsoft classic Paradroid, but that’s the game this ultimately owes its core concept to. If you haven’t heard of it either it’s the game that pioneered the idea of hijacking enemies to control their bodies and fight against their own kind. It’s a great gameplay mechanic but remains curiously underused, with Shiny Entertainment’s Messiah being perhaps the only other relatively famous example.Rather than a homicidal robot or rebellious cherub here you’re cast as a charisma-free special agent fighting the sort of evil corporations that most sci-fi plots got bored of 20 years ago. Jim and his lady friend Rebecca are thus embroiled in a pathetically uninteresting conspiracy that involves lots of tedious flashback sequences and some absolutely atrocious voice-acting.That’s not a good start obviously, but many a classic game has suffered from similar problems. Many a game has also tried, and failed, to copy Gears Of War and over the years we’ve found our respect for Epic’s series increasingly simply by how much better it looks compared to its ever increasing range of wannabes.Although you can technically do all the same things in Mindjacks as you can in Gears Of War none of it works with anything like the same finesse. Much of the cover you’re meant to hide behind has weird invisible edges to it, so that you’re either left still exposed or end up magically shooting through the obstacle. The melee combat lacks any kind of visceral thrill and the prompt to engage it is less reliable than a London bus.But even given these issues Mindjack still had a chance to save itself, by using its central ‘mindslave’ gimmick. If you manage to incapacitate an enemy you’re given a short window during which you can take over their body and get them to fight for you. This ability extends not only to humans, but also robots and gun-toting monkeys (who are sadly far less interesting an enemy as you probably just imagined and even more useless as an ally).As a mindslave you can get enemies to perform simple diversionary attacks or you can use a full-on ‘mindjack’ to take direct control of them. Rather than the simple button press you might have expected though you have to transition into incorporeal form first. But doing so leaves you so disorientated that by the time you’ve actually taken possession of your new body and worked out where you are you usually end up being killed straight away anyway.Despite the fact that the central game mechanics are so fiddly and unsatisfying the game tries to set itself up as a co-op game, where up to five others can join your campaign at any time and fight either with or against you. This is a great idea but it does illustrate an interesting point: when computer-controlled enemies get bored of a story campaign they don’t start larking about and refusing to play properly.With human players that’s a much more common problem – especially when they find out how infrequently spaced the checkpoints are. On top of this the game makes no attempt to make sure you have a balanced number of enemies and allies, so if you’re outnumbered you have absolutely no chance (since you also have to fight the other computer-controlled enemies too).There are a lot of great ideas here but none of them has been executed properly and instead they merely rot away behind the facade of banal sci-fi storytelling, ugly presentation and incompetent game mechanics. Other than that though it’s great.In Short:Good ideas and good intentions only go so far when the game itself is as incompetently made and balanced as this seriously flawed shooter.Pros:Tons of great ideas, including not just the mindslaving and mindjacking abilities but also the innovative multiplayer options.Cons:The problem is none of them are implemented in anything like a competent manner. And that’s before you consider the awful gunplay and terrible plot and presentation. Score:3/10Formats: Xbox 360 (reviewed) and PlayStation 3Price: £44.99Publisher: Square EnixDeveloper: feelplusRelease Date: 21st January 2011Age Rating: 16